Celebrating Yellowstone Park

This post was written by Marybeth Kavanagh, Reference Archivist

As a previous blog post has explained, Yellowstone National Park was established by Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872. Yellowstone was the first National Park in the U.S. and is also widely held to be the first national park in the world. So we’re celebrating by sharing these stunning images taken by photographer William Henry Jackson.

Plate 30, Palace Butte Park. Y-f 1873.Jackson

geyser crater — Plate 10, Upper Fire-Hole Basin from the Crater of “Old Faithful” Y-f 1873.Jackson

falls — Plate 18, Lower Falls of the Yellowstone. Y-f 1873.Jackson

Survey team — Plate 3, Meeting of the U.S. Geological Survey in the Lower Fire-Hole Basin. Y-f 1873.Jackson

Jackson took these photographs as part of the Department of the Interior’s Geological Survey of the Territories, headed by geologist F.V. Hayden. They were published in 1873; the library holds a copy of the volume: Photographs of the Yellowstone National Park and views in Montana and Wyoming territories.

The Declaration of Sentiments: "No more or less radical than the American Revolution"

March 31, 2016

This post was written by Maureen Maryanski, Reference Librarian for Printed Collections. As Women’s History Month draws to a close, let’s focus on one of the founding documents of American feminism: the Declaration of Sentiments. Drafted, debated, and signed during the first women’s rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York in July 1848, the Declaration enumerates the legal, economic, and social inequalities existing between women and men – and the signers’ commitment to fight for equality....Read More

Sketches of New York

May 19, 2016

Today there is nothing remarkable about the idea of New York as a large, diverse, cosmopolitan city. But to mid-19th century New Yorkers, the rapid growth of New York from a small, walkable city to a bustling, sprawling metropolis must have been a bit disorienting. In 1800, there were 60,515 residents of New York City, and more than half the city's population lived within one mile of the Battery. In 1840, the population had grown to 312,710, and by 1850, over 500,000....Read More

Witness to Tragedy: The Sinking of the General Slocum

February 24, 2016

This post was written by Ted Houghtaling, Scanning Technician. “Terrible affair that General Slocum explosion. Terrible, terrible! A thousand casualties. And heartrending scenes. Men trampling down women and children. Most brutal thing…" — James Joyce, Ulysses On the morning of June 15th, 1904, 1,358 members and friends of the St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church chartered an excursion ship named the General Slocum for their 17th annual picnic to Locust Grove, Long Island. Named for Civil War general and...Read More

Blog Icon

About

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Museum & Library Map

Address

Hours

Museum galleries and Museum store

Patricia D. Klingenstein Library